Graphic user interface has become the mainstream of today¡¦s web-based systems. The object oriented technique and the diagrams from the Unified Modeling Language (UML) are becoming the major tools for modeling the platform independent model (PIM) of a web-based system. Once the PIM is constructed, the results can then be transformed into its platform specific model and template code based on the model driven architecture (MDA) approach. However, the detailed guideline for the transformation from PIM to the Microsoft .Net platform is lacking. Therefore, this study presents a methodology which provides guidelines for the transformation from PIM to Microsoft .Net platform for a web-based system. The research methodology is articulated using the design science research methodology. A usability evaluation with a real-world web-based system case is performed to demonstrate its applicability. The results indicated that with this proposed method, the system developer can effectively transform the PIM of a web-based system into its Microsoft .Net platform and template code.

Abstract This research is to develop a new compound cage system that not only has the benefit of the traditional cage system but also has a series of oyster containers hanged on the circumference of the floating collar to add economic value to the cage aquaculture industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cage net deformation rate and the maximum mooring tension at the anchor under three types of Liuchiu sea states. The results of numerical simulation could be used as valuable guide for fish farmers and aquacultural cage designers. The developed numerical method is based on a lumped-mass approach to build a system of motion equations, and then utilizes the fourth order Runge-Kutta method to solve the motion equations. The numerical results reveal that under regular wave conditions, the cage net deformation rate for the compound cage system is slightly less than that of the traditional cage system, but the maximum mooring tension has reversed effect, i.e., the compound cage system has higher mooring tension than that of traditional one. As for the cases of irregular waves, the numerical results indicate that the cage net deformed so seriously that the fish can¡¦t survived at the sea condition of typhoon 50-year return period. To overcome this net shrinkage problem, an improved scheme is necessary to be implemented before a real compound cage system is installed in the open sea.

Insider trading may convey information to the market and promote accurate pricing of stocks. In this dissertation, I investigate insider trading at the turn of the century. In the first essay, I investigate insider trading activity in technology stocks during the high price - high volatility period of the late 1990s. I document that insiders of technology firms were heavy sellers during the ten month pre-peak period in which stock prices more than doubled. The technology stocks that were sold by insiders more extensively in the pre-peak period had lower returns in the post-peak period. I furthermore investigate the relation between the net order flows (buyer initiated minus seller initiated trades) and abnormal insider trading activity. I document that the net order flow is positively related to abnormal insider trading activity. However, this positive relation becomes weaker in the peak period; which implies less price discovery through insider trading during the rise of technology stock prices. In the second essay, I document that disclosure requirements significantly affect insider trading behavior. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires expedited and on-line disclosure of insider transactions. This increase in the visibility of insider trading reduces informational advantage of insiders and increases the likelihood of facing legal sanctions for insiders. I document that insider purchases significantly declined after the Sarbanes- Oxley Act. In addition, the incidences of insider purchases (sales) prior to positive (negative) earnings surprises declined after the Act. Finally, I document that the earnings announcements become more informative after the Act, which is consistent with less price discovery through insider trading prior to earnings announcements. However, the evidence that the decline in insider trading contributes to more informative earnings announcements is pronounced for insider purchases but not for insider sales.

Younger learners are widely considered to be technologically savvy and computer literate because of their lifelong exposure to ubiquitous technology. Educators often rely on that assumption to justify changes to institutional curricula, technology initiatives, new classroom strategies, and calls for educators to meet the educational demands of the younger generation. This study examines the computer literacy skills of Net Generation Learners (NGLs). This dissertation is composed of a systematic literature review, an examination of learner computer literacy skills prior to completing a college level course, and an investigation of the effects of different types of instruction on learner computer literacy skills. In the systematic literature review, identified studies focused primarily on learner familiarity with emerging technologies and relied heavily on self-reported data. Few studies directly measured learner computer literacy skills, and none compared the skills of NGLs and non-NGLs. A causal-comparative examination of learner computer literacy skills prior to a college level computer literacy course found that both NGLs and non-NGLs exhibited inadequate computer literacy skill. A 1-way ANOVA indicated NGLs performed significantly better than non-NGLs on a computer literacy skills assessment; however, examining learner age as a continuous variable via regression yielded different results. There may be validity to claims regarding the comparative computer proficiency of NGLs to non-NGLs, but the level of skill exhibited by learners does not warrant calls for radical educational changes, and the imprecision of arbitrarily defining age as a dichotomous variable produces potentially erroneous results. The effect of type of instruction on learner computer literacy skills was explored. Based on the results in this study, direct instruction focused on a comprehensive scope of computer literacy skills better supports learner acquisition of skills than does informal instruction or instruction focused on a limited range of skills. Future research should use statistical methods that analyze age as a continuous variable while continuing to examine directly the comparative computer literacy skills of NGLs and non-NGLs at all levels of education. Further inquiry into the effectiveness of different types of instruction to support learner acquisition of computer literacy skills should also be conducted.

This paper examines the information content of net income and cash flows for hotel and tourism industry and department store industry in Taiwan. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust (NATEIT) has suggested that Net Income is a misleading measure of operating performance for income-producing real estate operating companies. They assert that historical cost based depreciation is inappropriate for income-producing real estate because it is not correlated with changes in the value of those real estates. Thus, the NAREIT has promoted Funds From Operations (FFO) as a supplemental measure of operating performance. FFO is calculated as net income adding depreciation expense and excluding realized gain or loss from the sale of properties. Like the REITs, the hotel and department stores industry hold and operate income-producing real estate. We test the NAREIT proposal that FFO is a more informative measure for real estate operating companies by doing an empirical analysis for hotel industry and department store industry. The results suggest that although FFO is associated with stock market performance, it is not relatively superior to Net Income or incrementally relevant beyond Net Income. Furthermore, results on testing of individual components in deriving FFO from Net Income show that both depreciation expenses and gain or loss from sale of properties is not associated with stock price performance. This indicates that FFO excludes non-value relevant accounting data. Therefore, the test results show little evidence in supporting NAREIT¡¦s claim that FFO is a more informative measure for real estate operating companies. Although we do not have strong evidence to indicate that FFO is a better performance measure than Net Income, it is still a value relevant information in determining the value of income-producing real estate managing companies. The recent passed Taiwan Real Estate Securitization Act provides investors a new channel to invest in income-producing real estate. While it is not likely that FFO will replace Net Income as the main performance measure of the securities under Taiwan Real Estate Securitization Act, FFO could provide investors helpful information in determining the value of these income-producing real estate securities.

After the global trend of telecommunication liberalization in the 90s, mobile service market in West Europe, North America, Japan and Korea are moving from a rapid-growing stage to a mature stage. With the fierce market competition, the ARPU¡]Average Revenue Per User¡^coming from the voice service of mobile communication is gradually declining, and the whole market is facing a dilemma of price wars. Meanwhile, with the development of communication technology, Mobile Data Services have been launched progressively around the world. To prevent from becoming the victims like those in the internet bubbles again, every mobile communication service operator uses the differential market strategies as counterplots. This research is based on the viewpoint of changing business game taken from the co-opetition theory that was proposed by Braudenburge and Nalebuff in 1996. This research intended to explore the current status and the trend of global mobile communication services, and the market co-opetition strategies of leading companies. Furthermore, this research compares the global status with the related domestic environment and proposes a model of market strategy in this industry for our country and some suggestions for future development to change the business game of the industry. The result of this research suggests that the pure competition between mobile service providers and Value-Net players shall no longer exist, and shall be replaced by another relationship of mutually compensate cooperation and simultaneously both competition and cooperation. If those domestic operators could follow the co-opetition model to change the element of business game properly and to shape correct market strategies, it will very possibly be positively beneficial to the development of our mobile communication industry in this country.

Abstract Competition is the leading role for traditional concept, telecommunication industry also take competition as the thinking aspect in early days. In the time of digit convergence, competition is not only found in local but in global and technology is not belonged to single company any more. The thinking of competition has not coped with the market in the future and should take the thinking of co-opetition for the strategy development. The technology of 3rd Generation mobile communication can bring telecommunication industry new opportunities by providing customers the multiple services with higher speed such as data transmission, mobile business and multimedia A/V. This research discusses the strategy management of the industry for mobile communication in the time of digit convergence by studies of competitive strategy, value-chain of industry, co-opetition theory and analysis of industry status. After summarizing the related documents, literatures and the result of interviewing the specialists in this field, we have some conclusions listed as below: 1.To have the synergy, the technology between mobile wideband and wireless wideband must operate complementarily. 2.To adapt the uncertainty of digit convergence, the service providers of mobile communication should develop co-opetition strategy. 3.Should actively take the predomination for the technology standard of the industry. 4.The thinking of building the network for mobile communication should focus on the total solution of long-term evolution for network equipments. 5.The strategy of differential service is the essential strategy for the tendency of integrating fixed mobile convergence.

This purpose of this study was to develop the method in multimedia of environmental science and technology courses. The advanced net-work streaming technology was presented to edit the environmental science and technology courses. A development method combined vision technology and engineering experiments was to fulfill the eport of multimedia. In this work, we found (1) the interrelating ability of editing soft wares in production of above courses was very important; (2) to make a satisfactory works, a balancing decision was need between expected good result and limited budget; (3) as for net-work wide frequency extended and soft ware technology developed, the designer of courses must be careful the upgrade in editing soft wares in order to increase the courses broadcast; (4) used the practical teaching in topics, it could be training the real operation and resolving ability in problem on students; (5) a unique method correlated the record in experiment procedures to be a final report by vision technology; (6)presented a vision in multimedia of report to the project offer, to increase the trust and responsibility for works.

This retrospective descriptive study addressed the relationship between reading comprehension skills as measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the Nurse Entrance Test and indices of academic success (i.e., grade point average of prerequisite science courses and overall grade point average) prior to admission for students in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program with student success in the first semester of nursing coursework. Overall, there has been a continual decline in average reading ability of college-aged students. Reading is a basic skill for learning and academic success. To successfully complete an academic program of study in preparation to become professional nurses, students must be able to read and apply material from textbooks and journals. With the well-documented nursing shortage, any attrition from a nursing program contributes to the professional dilemma. Correlational and descriptive methods were used to determine the relationships among the variables for 179 students in this selected Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. A comparative approach was used to investigate possible cause and effect relationships between measures of academic success of students and reading comprehension abilities. Data were obtained from official academic records and test results for the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the Nurse Entrance Test. Statistical procedures used to understand and interpret the interactions among and between the variables and included frequency distributions, descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, and a regression model. Results of the study, limited to the students in this BSN program, indicated that reading comprehension, as measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, was better in identifying student risk for academic failure. There was a positive relationship between the grade point average (GPA) for prerequisite science courses, overall cumulative GPA, and GPA for the first semester nursing courses. Early determination of reading comprehension ability provides needed information to direct intervention activities to improve individual reading comprehension abilities and, thus, promote successful academic performance in the first semester of this nursing program and thereafter.

In this research, using the statistic catch data of northwest pacific saury from the Overseas Fisheries Development Council of The Republic of China between 2004 to 2007 to conduct an resource assessment on pacific saury. First of all, calculate and compare the equilibrium level of open access fishery and the net present value maximization fishery. And then, using the northwest pacific saury statistic catch data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations between 2005 to 2007 for the simulation analysis of resource of pacific saury, and the results simulated with the two fishing grounds of the equilibrium value for comparison. The results showed that the problem of depletion of the resource does not exist. The final, assumption that the value of parameters are changing in the range of reasonable in order to understand the impact of the changing in the fishery resource of the stock and effort. Collate and analyze the results, and expect that the results can be a management reference for the management of the northwest pacific saury fisheries.